Symbol.for() - JavaScript | MDN (original) (raw)
Try it
console.log(Symbol.for("bar") === Symbol.for("bar"));
// Expected output: true
console.log(Symbol("bar") === Symbol("bar"));
// Expected output: false
const symbol1 = Symbol.for("foo");
console.log(symbol1.toString());
// Expected output: "Symbol(foo)"
Syntax
Parameters
String, required. The key for the symbol (and also used for the description of the symbol).
Return value
An existing symbol with the given key if found; otherwise, a new symbol is created and returned.
Description
In contrast to Symbol(), the Symbol.for() function creates a symbol available in a global symbol registry list. Symbol.for() does also not necessarily create a new symbol on every call, but checks first if a symbol with the given key is already present in the registry. In that case, that symbol is returned. If no symbol with the given key is found, Symbol.for() will create a new global symbol.
Examples
Using Symbol.for()
Symbol.for("foo"); // create a new global symbol
Symbol.for("foo"); // retrieve the already created symbol
// Same global symbol, but not locally
Symbol.for("bar") === Symbol.for("bar"); // true
Symbol("bar") === Symbol("bar"); // false
// The key is also used as the description
const sym = Symbol.for("mario");
sym.toString(); // "Symbol(mario)"
To avoid name clashes with your global symbol keys and other (library code) global symbols, it might be a good idea to prefix your symbols:
Symbol.for("mdn.foo");
Symbol.for("mdn.bar");
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| ECMAScript® 2026 Language Specification # sec-symbol.for |